One of the first steps you take when you are estimating your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By looking at the USDA zone info for Punxsutawney you should be able to determine when it's the best time to plant sunflowers.

Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

Frost tolerance for sunflowers:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's probably not a good idea to plant sunflowers until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Punxsutawney is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your sunflowers may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your sunflowers indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Punxsutawney. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Punxsutawney is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Punxsutawney you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your sunflowers in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Punxsutawney

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Punxsutawney

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Punxsutawney.